If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I think there is a subtle difference ... but an important one ... in registering voters and fabricating what appears to be popular support by paying demonstrators.

The latter is a real insult to the concept of free speech, and to citizens who truly organize themselves at the grass roots level using their own personal time and funds to voice their opinions on public policy.

Regardless of who is paying demonstrators like this (right or left), it isn't right.

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

George Soros and Move On .org need to be deported. He is the power behind Osama.

thats correct , always follow the money trail..ever since McCain -Feingold campaign finance reform (an oxymoron of its own) these PAC's (politcal action committees) learned and exploited the loopholes so they can funnel money into groups like Move On and let them do their dirty work so the party itself comes off as clean as the driven snow...Men like Soros are dangerous, very dangerous because he has enough wealth to buy political influence

All my Exes live in Texas

Originally Posted by lanse brown

A few things that I learned still ring true. "Lanse when you get a gift, say thank you and walk away. When you get a screwing walk away. You are going to get a lot more screwings than gifts"

Quote:
"... as well as my specific background running Medicaid and improving Medicaid payment systems in New York City. The system we implemented in NYC was years ahead of anything existing in the private sector at that time (mid-1970's) allowing both more effective screening for erroneous and fraudulent billings and faster turnaround on payments (under 10 days) than was possible under private sector systems "

Which part did I make up??

Your profile says you are 60.
Mid 70's makes you about 24-25 at the time.

Now, who's the "BLOW-HARD??"

The blowhard comment was a direct (shall we say measured) response to a similarly ignorant comment about my resume. With respect to my actual positions and ages, the relevant parts of my resume would be:

1973-1976 Lead policy analyst, health care, NYC Office of the Mayor (age 23-26, 25 staff)
1976-1977 Exec Director NYC Medicaid Task Force responsible for directing Medicaid across all City agencies (age 26-27, about 1000 staff)
1977-78 Assistant to the Mayor, Health care, responsible for coordinating all City agencies and authorities with respect to health care policy and operations (age 27-28, no staff)
1978-1980 (age 28-30, ~100 staff, overseeing 42,000 staff) Director, Management & Budget, NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation, overseeing budget reductions of 19% and layoffs of over 4000 staff in two years during which we went from every hospital having a provisional one year accreditation to no hospitals with any noted operational deficiencies in accreditation and certification audits and an increase in the volume of services provided.

For what it's worth, I left the public sector at that point, joining Arthur Young & Company (now Ernst & Young) where I became a Partner a few years later working almost exclusively with private sector clients.

While director for Medicaid, I replaced all payment systems then in use. The actual systems had been developed by the Rand Corporation a few years earlier at a cost of $20 million but could not be implemented because of problems in the eligibility systems that they were unable to resolve. I developed a conceptual approach for resolving those problems (called the "Dirty Goodwin System" in the initial feasibility studies) that allowed us to reconstruct and deploy the systems over a period of 12 weeks, immediately reducing expenditures by 8% as errors were eliminated (saving $200-300 million in the first fiscal year and more thereafter). When combined with changes in processing procedures that I developed and implemented, we were also able to reduce the time to process claims from six months to 10 days. This resulted in savings of about $50 million in financing costs.

Using the data from the new payment systems we were able to implement advanced fraud detection systems that allowed us to identify and target a class of providers that we labeled Medicaid Mills (the term had not been used previously). These were landlord organized clinics where rents were based on a percentage of all billings and the landlords offered physicians bonuses for referrals made to other physicians in the building. The landlords handled billings for the physicians and also acted as factoring agents, advancing them monies due from Medicaid. By eliminating payment lags we were able to break their hold on the physicians. By analyzing data from the new payments systems were were able to identify patient "ping ponging" between physicians at a common address to locate Medicaid Mills and structure surprise inspections/audits that resulted in numerous fraud investigations and convictions. The resulting savings from all of these programs totaled about half a billion over two years and were a major part of the City's strategy for emerging from bankruptcy at the time.

Jeff, as I recall, you mentioned leaving public service for a matter of principle, though I can't remember exactly what it was.

Too bad ... they could absolutely have used your talents with Medicare and in other states' Medicaid programs!

If you could generate these savings in 1980 through computerization innovation, I can only imagine what more of the same could do now for that simple drug usage database. I would imagine that health care insurors would welcome a way to decrease costs.

I am almost certain that many Medicare recipients are taken advantage of. I handled my mother's Medicare/insurance forms (she also had a supplement from the NYS employees' union). Many on Medicare would find this paperwork beyond them & never notice what was going on with the charges.

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

Jeff, as I recall, you mentioned leaving public service for a matter of principle, though I can't remember exactly what it was.

Too bad ... they could absolutely have used your talents with Medicare and in other states' Medicaid programs!

If you could generate these savings in 1980 through computerization innovation, I can only imagine what more of the same could do now for that simple drug usage database. I would imagine that health care insurors would welcome a way to decrease costs.

I am almost certain that many Medicare recipients are taken advantage of. I handled my mother's Medicare/insurance forms (she also had a supplement from the NYS employees' union). Many on Medicare would find this paperwork beyond them & never notice what was going on with the charges.

I left government primarily because I hit a point in my life where I had a wife in graduate school, a young child, and a mortgage and I needed my paycheck. I did not feel I could do my job the way it needed to be done unless I was able to accept being publicly fired (meaning newspaper front pages) at any time. Politics is a full contact sport that most closely resembles cage fighting and your family is always likely to be thrown into the cage with you. If you can't take the heat, get out of the cage. I'm not sure that qualifies as "leaving for principle".

At no time in my life have I ever worked as hard as I did in government and at no time in my life did I ever feel that what I was doing was more important. It was truly a privilege and the things I learned were the foundation for the success I enjoyed in the private sector. Both were less important than raising my kids.

I think there is a subtle difference ... but an important one ... in registering voters and fabricating what appears to be popular support by paying demonstrators.

The latter is a real insult to the concept of free speech, and to citizens who truly organize themselves at the grass roots level using their own personal time and funds to voice their opinions on public policy.

Regardless of who is paying demonstrators like this (right or left), it isn't right.

Apparently the Bonner Group is a firm dedicated to helping grass-roots organizing. Isn't "firm" and "grassroots" sort of mutually exclusive?

I left government primarily because I hit a point in my life where I had a wife in graduate school, a young child, and a mortgage and I needed my paycheck.

My mistake ... I thought you had also mentioned observing that political considerations impacted how people performed, or were allowed to perform, their jobs ... i.e. that the political aspect impeded getting the job done effectively & efficiently.

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

Of course the WH claimed these were randomly selected. Right...a young lady and her mother from MA were randomly selected to attend an event in NH...and the mother just happens to be a huge contributor and supporter.